Users of a desktop email client like Outlook or Thunderbird have long been used to using the email function built in many applications like Word, Windows Explorer, etc to attach files with ease.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for web based email like Gmail. You could make Gmail the default email client within the browser like you can do in Firefox. But, your Windows desktop applications don’t have any idea how to do it for Gmail. I came across gAttach on Madhur’s blog and tried it out.

What is gAttach?

gAttach is a small Windows application that lets you email using Gmail with or without attachments from almost any Windows application. Here are a gist of gAttach features

Send email from any Windows application via Gmail

Handles email – mailto links from all browsers and not just Firefox

Works with Google Apps

Uses HTTPS for added security

Option to let gAttach remember your Gmail username/password for convenience or you can just login yourself

Choose to launch Gmail after creating a draft message

Choose to use basic HTML version or Rich Text version

Option Load Gmail when you click on an email link

Option to setup proxy server details

Free for personal use

gAttach was a small 496K download and just took under 2 minutes to install. Once installed, you just use the Send to ‘Mail recipient’ function in your Windows Explorer right-click menu to attach files. Just be mind ful of the 20MB attachment size limit in Gmail.

Gmail Notifier can also make Gmail the default mail client for Windows and Mac but gAttach gives you the extra options mentioned here.

What about Linux?

gAttach is a Windows application. What if you wanted to make Gmail the default mail client in Linux? How-to Geek has this trick covered. Even though the post is on how to get it done on Ubuntu, it should work on other Linux distros as well.

Use Gmail without a Mouse

For a power Gmail user, some of the Gmail keyboard shortcuts are essential. For me, ‘#’ key is just invaluable to delete mails easily trying to keep up with the ‘zero inbox’ I try to follow. However, this post from official Gmail blog, nicely walks though on various keyboard shortcuts to use Gmail without a mouse. (tip: just type ? in Gmail to see various shortcuts)

Gmail users, what do you think? If you are using Yahoo or Hotmail, do you know of a similar way to do this?

This product has provided a service which is quite useful to those who would want to attach through an application that is normally not as easy to use. Having a program associated with Google also tends to build it up a bit quicker.